“Move,” the arach commanded, its voice echoing in the implant, and I wondered how.
“My link by-passes the program jamming your colleagues,” it said, and I suddenly realized how…
“How what?” it asked, as I shut that line of thought away.
To stop it from trying to find the answer to that, I stepped into the cross corridor, and hoped Tens and Delight would get to me before we reached the airlock. Last time someone had made me go into an airlock I hadn’t wanted to, I’d had nightmares for months. I didn’t want those nightmares to come back.
“It wouldn’t be for long,” the arach assured me, and I remembered the fate that had been assigned the crew.
Oh, Hell, no!
I took two more steps, and then dropped to the floor. No, no, no, no, and no. I was not going another step further. The damn spider wanted me in the airlock? It was going to have to drag me there.
“As you wish,” and he shifted his grip from my arm, to the hood of my suit, pulling me forward by the scruff of my neck, and letting me drag behind him.
Cool!
I reached out and wrapped my hands around his ankles. He tripped, but recovered, pulling one leg free of my grip, and then the other, before continuing towards the airlock.
“Nice try.”
Yeah, but had I earned myself a time-out?
“It can be arranged.”
I just bet it could. Fortunately, Delight and Tens didn’t mess around. Someone should have told the spider that the best way to transport your hostage was to drape it over your vital bits so people thought twice before shooting you. Guess he hadn’t had anyone shooting at him for way too long… or, not long enough; it would depend on who you asked.
Tens and Delight had the Blazer 54s on full auto, and they weren’t worrying about hitting each other. Some would have called it crazy, or straight out suicidal, but I knew these guys. They were just really, really pissed. That, and they and knew the range at which their combat armor could take it. Man, I hoped they didn’t screw it up.
On the other hand, I figured they hadn’t calculated the distance for me, so I just kept myself flat to the floor, and let little bits of spider shower down around me. By the time the shooting stopped, I was lying in a puddle of spider goo, and wishing they’d get over it already. What the fuck had happened to Mack?
I was about to ask Delight, when she turned away, speaking rapidly into her comms. I picked myself up off the floor, and looked at Tens, but he was looking off into the distance, like he was eavesdropping on a very private conversation. I kept the helmet on, but cracked the faceplate, so I could breathe, and then I just rolled slowly to my feet and stood there.
There was no point in tracking ichor and intestines all over the ship. That would just make Doc mad. I figured there would be a decontamination team arriving shortly. I was waiting for Tens to finish listening in to whatever conversation he was tracking, when Delight suddenly raised her voice.
“I don’t care what humans are on board. It can’t leave the system!”
She paused briefly, and I turned towards her, jumping when she shouted, again.
“Just blow that motherfucking bitch to Hell!”
She waited, and the look on her face was enough to freeze the dead.
“Now. Captain!” and she froze, her eyes watching something I couldn’t see.
It made me wish my implant hadn’t been locked down by the arach lying in pieces on the floor… and on me… and on the walls. I looked up. Oh, Stars. I closed my eyes and swallowed bile, refusing throw up. Thinking of the showers in Medical, and the fact the decontamination team would be here, soon, helped.
When Delight spoke, again, I opened my eyes. Her voice was calmer, although it didn’t remain that way. I listened while I waited for someone to come and clean the corridor. It helped me ignore exactly what I was standing in.
“Nicely done, captain.”
She paused, then replied to a comment I couldn’t hear. “Yes. I’m sorry, too, but we couldn’t save them, not when we have a whole world depending on us.”
Another pause, and then in a voice firm but full of regret, “Yes, captain. Tell the cruiser to take that transport down. We can’t afford to let them get a toehold on the planet.”
A moment of quiet followed, and when she spoke next, her voice was hard. “Captain, tell them to tell HQ that we’ve already had one crew member mind-raped, on a ship where the crew were nearly bled dry, and that these bastards can take on the form of specific people and exfiltrate their heads, right down to the correct colloquial and emotional responses. Tell them, they come in swarms. And then tell them to consult with the lizardine, if they still have any doubts. Now, get the fuck off the line, and take them out!”
It took her a moment to come back to the corridor, and I guessed that she spent it monitoring the actions of the Odyssey ships that were in the system. Once she was done, she focused on me, and her face twisted in disgust.
“Man, Cutter, you need a shower!”
Well, for once, we agreed.
16—Mack, Needles and the Psi
“We are sorry, Cutter,” the vespis queen said, later, when she learned what had happened. “We could have saved you much trouble if we had thought.”
If they had thought what? It was hardly their fault the arach had managed to disguise himself as human and then bitten Mack and gotten into his head, and taken on his form.
“We should have thought they would send at least one infiltrator.”
I swallowed.
“It’s okay, your
